mental health
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Mom, Dad, the books and beers
This was the first Mother’s Day without my adopted Mom as she died last year. This month is also the month my adopted Dad died just days after sending us a box of books by mail. So it’s been rough. Also I’m very busy working on an art exhibit. So I’ve mostly been offline away…
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The elephant in the room and we run outside
I asked my friends recently for ugly wallpaper suggestions that I could use for a painting I was working on. My friends are awesome and helped so much! The 1970’s avocado, orange and yellow combination was mentioned. So were weird rooster and chicken patterns and prickly cactus patterns. One friend talked about her pet peeve…
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Gmorning some bunnies being creative and resting Gnight
We had a fun visit this week with our wonderful Fairy Goddaughter, the very best Goddaughter since once upon a time! We had a delightful conversation about books and she gave us this one by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s a delightful cheerful sort of poetry book. A restorative way to begin and end a day. What…
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Flying pigs and being human.
Knowing how you feel, what you think and being able to talk clearly about it is an important skill to cultivate. This is true for everyone and especially true for anyone trying to do anything creative. Creativity comes from a regular habit of observing the world and listening to yourself to your own thoughts and…
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Rhythms, library books and diary days
In my last post I talked about creating rhythms and patterns. This week I created rhythmic art based on my real life. For example I saw a plant skeleton which inspired part of an artist book I made and shared earlier this week on my email newsletter (there’s a video flip-through on my newsletter). In…
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Rhythms, a doodlebug and little piggies
I recently read “Hare Brain Tortoise Mind” by Guy Claxton and was reminded of how rhythmic things like weeding a garden or doodling can be calming to the human mind. This physical neurological response to “uniformly random rhythms” is also part of the human reaction to rhythms in songs, poetry or prose – we respond…
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Touristing, a happy hippo, and a pink elephant
We went touristing and drove 20 minutes from our house to Camas WA independent bookstore called Its Bookish. It’s a delightful store focused on children’s books up to young adult with some adult books too. Here’s some views of what we saw on our way to Its Bookish. Not pictured, because I wasn’t able to…
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Peanut Boater and PNW poetry prose bugs
“Quick! The poetry section!” I said when we entered Annie Bloom’s Books. We were meeting our great niece for dinner and drinks but we were 20 minutes early so we stopped at a nearby independent bookstore. The clerk in Annie Bloom’s pointed to the nicely handwritten sign. Below is a photo of what I grabbed…
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Marinating in the fun stuff
This week I finished the painting I was working on in my last post and I continued playing around in the fun too! I played with the new inks (see also my last post). I made postcards for friends with these 2 inks as seen on my Substack newsletter. As you know I see art…
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New ink, new books and the importance of mucking about
I finished my commission for the Caplan Art Designs Gallery and delivered it. Still can’t talk about it yet but I’m pleased and the Gallery was pleased… enough said! With the leftover paint from the commission I began working on this painting currently in progress… As a reward for finishing the commission my wife and…
sue clancy - artist 